A Vermonter is being monitored for Ebola symptoms after returning from a personal mission trip to West Africa.

Governor Shumlin and Vermont health officials called an emergency news conference in Burlington Tuesday. Shumlin said the man was in West Africa for several weeks before returning to the US. State officials aren't identifying the man who returned from West Africa Monday. When he landed at JFK in New York, he was met by state law enforcement and health officials who said he showed no signs of disease.

The man has said he went to guinea and Sierra Leone trying to help. Governor Shumlin says the man is from Rutland county and claims he is a physician-- but there is no record of any license in the state. When he arrived in New York, he agreed to enter a 21-day quarantine in Vermont.

“The individual involved has been extraordinarily cooperative in understanding the importance and the seriousness of the challenges that we face,” said Shumlin.Shumlin said if the man becomes agitated or wants to leave, officials are prepared to act.

“If in this situation or with a different individual, we deemed it necessary, the health department deemed it necessary to establish involuntary monitoring we have the ability to do so by the order of the commission,” Shumlin said.

“We do know if someone has been exposed to ebola and starts to develop students their level of infectiousness at that point when they're just starting to develop symptoms is very, very low,” Kelso said.

Health officials have said both the patient and the public are at low risk at this stage. If the man's health takes a turn for the worse, officials say he'll likely be hospitalized at Fletcher Allen.